*INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY* Senior Practitioner FGC in Walthamstow

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO4 - PO5 £49,056 - £55,323

Contract Type: Full Time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36 hours

Application Deadline: 10/04/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 2043

About Us

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role

The Family Group Conferencing Senior Practitioner is an exciting new role. The purpose of the post is to:

• Develop and operationally manage Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) within the borough.
• Lead the Family Group Conference (FGC) service and ensure quality and value for money at all times.
• Ensure the FGC service complies with relevant legislation, regulations and policies.
• Manage and oversee a range of complex cases and service delivery challenges to maintain or improve the wellbeing of children, young people and families.
• Provide professional guidance, support and leadership to FGC Conveners and associated professionals working in the FGC service as well to those delivering under the wider FGDM framework.
• Develop and implement the FGDM framework.
• Engage families at the earliest opportunity to provide support and reduce the risk of families requiring statutory services where alternatives are appropriate.
• Engage with families and professionals to understand needs and ensure effective planning and delivery of FGC processes.
• Oversee complex case arrangements and ensure that outcome-focused, strength-based conferencing is taking place.
• Support Conveners in facilitating meetings that build independence and resilience within family networks.
• Ensure clear communication, including culturally competent language, and ensure participation of families in planning and decision-making.
• Evaluate risk in collaboration with relevant authorities and manage safeguarding concerns according to procedures.
• Promote inclusive and equitable practice, taking into account structural and systemic barriers impacting families.
• Plan, deliver and oversee the work of FGC Conveners and associated interventions.
• Monitor and review effectiveness of conferencing outcomes.
• Promote use of evidence-informed practice in conferencing, including reflective models and trauma-informed approaches.
• Ensure timely, accurate documentation of decisions, actions and outcomes.
• Maintain high standards of case recording and information governance.
• Provide mentoring and day-to-day professional support to FGC Conveners and contribute to their continued development through feedback, guidance and reflective supervision.

PO5- In addition to the above, you will also be responsible for:

• Policy and procedure development within the FGC context and delivering workshops or learning sessions for colleagues.
• Assisting with service review, improvement planning and incorporation of feedback from children, families and partners.
• Championing effective risk assessments and decision-making processes across the FGC service.
• Proposing and implementing service improvements across FGDM services based on learning from practice and feedback from families and partners.
• Leading coaching and peer support forums for Conveners, fostering strong team development and effective service delivery.
• Acting as duty manager within the FGC team, ensuring operational continuity.

The senior practitioner will hold direct Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Oversight and development of 3 x FGC Conveners

Qualifications and Requirements

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• Educated to degree standard or equivalent
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
• Experience of service delivery which is culturally sensitive and responsive to the needs of a multi-cultural community
• Experience of prioritisation, care planning and service delivery
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience in assessing complex risk
• Experience of having to interpret, understand and make judgements on the complex interactions between the risk and protective factors in any given situation when arriving at a decision about whether the child or young person is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm
• High-level knowledge and skills in gathering information from a range of sources, including direct observation of children and young people and their interactions with carers
• Ability to make timely judgments and decisions that are based on evidence and thorough analysis of all the information gathered
• Demonstrable ability to draw up specific practical plans with clear timescales that are based on high quality assessments, which set out the planned outcomes for the child or young person
• Ability to drive service improvements
• Ability to negotiate
• Ability to set priorities personally and for others
• Knowledge and understanding of key management skills, roles and responsibilities required for successful leadership
• Ability to systematically monitor and review decisions and plans, and to revise them where appropriate in the light of new information and evaluation of whether the interventions are achieving the planned outcomes
• Knowledge about the different methods of intervention and, on the basis of a critical review of the research evidence, ability to understand their effectiveness
• Ability to demonstrate or show evidence of having undertaken and managed to completion a number of complex cases and ability to demonstrate a high level of conceptualisation of critical analysis
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written)
• ICT skills including use of Microsoft applications.

PO5: in addition to the above:

• Substantial diverse experience working with children and their families
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of human rights and choice including mental capacity.
• Leadership and management skills to support others in developing
• Extensive experience of providing consultation, mentoring and developing FGC conveners

Terms and conditions

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/or vulnerable adults;
• Satisfactory DBS check;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role.

How to Apply

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives:

• Promoting equality of opportunity
• Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage
• Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels.
• Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all.

Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual’s personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Anne McPherson at anne.mcpherson@walthamforest.gov.uk or 07970 968 579. The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Locations: Walthamstow, Greater London, United Kingdom